Playlist: An Evening at Westbrook

A soundtrack for the house after five o'clock, when the lamps come on, supper is being prepared and the day starts to soften.

The Westbrook Institute · Gathering Studies · Light Studies · The Art of Living Well

There is a particular sound to an evening at home.

The clink of glasses, a cupboard closing in the kitchen, the first lamp switched on before it is quite dark, someone turning a page in the next room and music playing quietly enough that conversation can continue.

This playlist is made for that hour.

Not dinner party music exactly. Not background music either. Something in between warm, romantic, slightly nostalgic and unhurried.

I. The House Before Supper

The last of the daylight is still coming through the windows.

1. Bryan Ferry - Slave to Love

2. Sade - Kiss of Life

3. The Blue Nile - The Downtown Lights

4. Everything But the Girl - Driving

5. Roxy Music - More Than This

II. The Long Table

Candles lit. Glasses filled. Someone has brought another chair into the room.

6. Bill Withers - Lovely Day

7. Al Green - Let's Stay Together

8. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic

9. Dusty Springfield - The Look of Love

10. George Michael - Cowboys and Angels

III. The Hour Between

Dinner is over. Nobody has quite decided to leave the table.

11. Chet Baker - I Fall in Love Too Easily

12. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

13. Nick Drake - Northern Sky

14. Air - La Femme d'Argent

15. Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It

IV. The Reading Lamp

The house grows quieter.

16. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

17. The Style Council - You're the Best Thing

18. Prefab Sprout - When Love Breaks Down

19. Sade - No Ordinary Love

20. Kate Bush - And So Is Love

V. After Dark

Only the lamps remain.

21. George Michael - Kissing a Fool

22. Smokey Robinson - Being With You

23. Simply Red - Stars

24. Everything But the Girl - Each and Every One

25. Sade - By Your Side

The Westbrook Listening Note

The playlist should feel like a house rather than a genre.

There are traces of soul, jazz, sophisticated pop, quiet singer songwriters and 1980s/90s romanticism but nothing is too dominant. The music should move naturally with the evening:

Daylight → Supper → Conversation → Reading → Candlelight → Sleep

The old house provides the setting.
The music tells us someone lives there now.

FROM THE WESTBROOK ARCHIVE

M.026.2026

An Evening at Westbrook

Listening Study

Observed after sunset: the lamps were lit, supper had ended and the music continued in the next room.

Field Note: Some evenings are remembered by what was said. Others by the music that was playing.